Alexandria re Trying Detainees: Not in My Backyard
There’s growing concern in suburban Alexandria, Va., that the Obama administration will move some Guantanamo Bay detainees to stand trial in the federal courthouse there.
“We would be absolutely opposed to relocating Guantanamo prisoners to Alexandria,” Mayor William D. Euille (D) told the Washington Post. “We would do everything in our power to lobby the president, the governor, the Congress and everyone else to stop it. We’ve had this experience, and it was unpleasant. Let someone else have it.”
The experience was the 2006 death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of conspiring in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The Post recalls that the Moussaoui trial “turned the neighborhood into a virtual encampment, with heavily armed agents, rooftop snipers, bomb-sniffing dogs, blocked streets, identification checks and a fleet of television satellite trucks.”
Administration officials are currently reviewing files for some 240 detainees still being held at Guantanamo, which is slated for closure. Outcry in Alexandria is coming after Alexandria and Manhattan were named as possible destinations for possible trials.
